The WNBA hot-stove league kicked off an earnest Tuesday with a two-player, two-pick trade with massive ramifications. The Connecticut Sun and Minnesota Lynx swapped the No. 1 and No.2  picks, in the process returning their point guards to the states where they starred in college: Lindsay Whalen goes to the Lynx while the Sun gets sophomore Renee Montgomery.

Oddly, one of the first pieces of WNBA analysis I did for this site was on the Lynx not getting Whalen and why the team would probably be OK without her.  Indeed, in 2004 Minnesota was very competitive before losing Katie Smith to a torn ACL and getting swept by the Storm in the playoffs. But things fell apart the next year, Smith was traded to Detroit (I’d probably rather not revisit my column on that trade) and the Lynx have been stuck in a rebuilding cycle ever since.

With a healthy Seimone Augustus, the first and third overall picks in the draft, and a core of young talent, it was evident Minnesota was going to be much improved next year. Still, the addition of Whalen kick starts the team’s move from promising to dangerous. For years, the Lynx have been looking for a veteran leader to go alongside the youngsters. From that standpoint, Whalen is a perfect fit. She’s a natural leader who also happens to be one of the WNBA’s best point guards. While Montgomery certainly may reach that level, Whalen is there now, fitting an accelerated timetable for contention in Minnesota.

Over the last few months, UConn’s Tina Charles began to solidify herself as the No. 1 overall pick ahead of Stanford’s Jayne Appel, especially with her 20-point, 12-rebound effort when the Huskies beat the Cardinal last month. Along with the marketing value of having two more UConn stars to go along with Asjha Jones, that’s why this deal made sense for the Sun. Connecticut now is in the same position the Lynx were – a strong group of promising young players. A frontline of Jones, the versatile Sandrine Gruda and Charles looks stout, and the Sun boasts a pair of last year’s top rookies in the backcourt between Montgomery and Anete Jekabsone-Zogota. Having so many stars on rookie contracts gives Mike Thibault a lot of salary-cap flexibility to build the rest of his roster.

Still, the big story here is just how good the Lynx looks for 2010. Minnesota can throw out a starting five of Whalen, Candice Wiggins (who could return to the sixth woman role in which she thrived as a rookie), Seimone Augustus, newcomer Rebekkah Brunson and Nicky Anosike. The Lynx could bring off the bench both the No. 2 and No. 3 picks, veteran guard Kelly Miller (an unrestricted free agent) and Charde Houston – who was an All-Star last year but might be Minnesota’s fourth-best post player this season. The biggest challenge for new Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve could be finding enough minutes for all this talent.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 at 2:33 pm and is filed under WNBA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.